{"product_id":"fighting-identity-9781032279190","title":"Fighting Identity","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is an immersive ethnographic account of how fighters at a Polish-owned Muay Thai\/kickboxing gym in East London seek to reject prior identity markers in favour of constructing one another as the same, as fighters, a category supposedly free from the negative assumptions and limitations associated with prior ascriptions such as race, class, gender and sexuality.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt explores questions of subjectivity and identity by examining how and why fighters sought to disavow identity, which involved casting aside pre-established ways of thinking, feeling and acting about constructed differences to forge deep bonds of carnal convivial friendships. Yet, this book argues that becoming a fighter is highly socially contingent and remains subject to rupture due to the durability of taken-for-granted thinking about race, gender and sexuality, which, if drawn upon, could pull people out of the category of fighter and back into longer-standing durable categories. This book deploys Butler''\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A tender yet quietly punchy portrait of the precious multiracial convivialities that obtain amid the sweat, blood and tears of a (kick)boxing gym. The bonds of working-class multiculture forged through the mutual vulnerability and trust as cultivated in the gym stand here in firm resolve against the insistent weight of the racisms and nationalisms that otherwise colour our political present. Marrying patiently observed ethnographic detail with a deftly accessible and unburdened prose, Amit Singh reminds us that the anti-racisms of tomorrow are already being incubated in the ostensibly mundane spaces and practices all around us. \u003ci\u003eFighting Identity \u003c\/i\u003eis, in other words, a moving witness to the cultural textures common to our cities that help us scope a path out of racism’s wicked diminution of the lives that we might otherwise lead together.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSivamohan Valluvan\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eAssociate Professor of Sociology at The University of Warwick, UK; \u003c\/em\u003eand author of \u003cem\u003eThe Clamour of Nationalism (2019)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"What happens when Pierre Bourdieu meets Judith Butler in a kickboxing ring? Sociological sparks fly! \u003ci\u003eFighting Identity \u003c\/i\u003eis not just a fascinating field account of the fabrication of fighters and a theoretical rumination on masculine plebeian dreams in black and white. It is also an astute sociological dissection of the making and unmaking of habitus, rooted in a community of suffering bodies that lifts its members above their mundane condition, and a deft demonstration of the carnality of identity.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLoïc Wacquant\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eBody and Soul \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Invention of the \"Underclass\" \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"For anyone who ever wanted to see inside the sweaty glamour of the fighting gym, this scholarly story-telling will gratify your curiosity and touch your heart. We learn how fighters navigate the intense connections of the gym-space to unsettle racism and homophobia, at least a little, and what it is in the demanding disciplines of fight culture that edges open space to imagine more hopeful relations between us. You may also experience a strange urge to train more - embrace it.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGargi Bhattacharyya\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eRethinking Racial Capitalism\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e1 Introduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2 Becoming a Fighter and Escaping Identity\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e3 Gender in the Gym: Fighting for Respect in a \"Cis-Male Space\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e4 Carnal Conviviality, Culture \u0026amp; Complex Identities\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e5 No Race, No Racism?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e6 Black Masculinity: Being a Fighter or Being a \"Black Fighter\"?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e7 Conclusion: Making Fighters, Un-making Identity?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51018943922519,"sku":"9781032279190","price":118.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781032279190.jpg?v=1750778763","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/fighting-identity-9781032279190","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}